Metamemory for pictures of naturalistic scenes: Assessment of accuracy and cue utilization

Memory for naturalistic pictures is exceptionally good. However, little is known about people’s ability to monitor the memorability of naturalistic pictures. We report the first systematic investigation into the accuracy and basis of metamemory in this domain. People studied pictures of naturalistic scenes, predicted their chances of recognizing each picture at a later test (judgment of learning, JOL), and completed a recognition memory test. Across three experiments, JOLs revealed substantial accuracy. This was due to people basing their JOLs on multiple cues, most of which predicted recognition memory. Identified cues include intrinsic picture attributes (e.g., peacefulness of scenes; scenes with or without persons) and extrinsic aspects of the study situation (e.g., presentation frequency; semantic distinctiveness of scenes with respect to the context). This work provides a better understanding of metamemory for pictures and it demonstrates close parallels between metamemory for naturalistic scenes and verbal materials.

The predictable evolution of letter shapes: An emergent script of West Africa recapitulates historical change in writing systems

A familiar story about the evolution of alphabets is that individual letters originated in iconic representations of real things. Over time, these naturalistic pictures became simplified into abstract forms. Thus the iconic ox’s head of Egyptian hieroglyphics transformed into the Phoenician and eventually the Roman letter A. In this vein, attempts to theorize the evolution of writing have tended to propose variations on a model of unilinear and unidirectional progression. According to this progressivist formula, pictorial scripts will tend to become more schematic while their systems will target smaller linguistic units. Objections to this theory point to absent, fragmentary or contrary paleographic evidence, especially for predicted transitions in the underlying grammatical systems of writing. However, the forms of individual signs, such as the letter A, are nonetheless observed to change incrementally over time. We claim that such changes are predictable and that scripts will, in fact, become visually simpler in the course of their use, a hypothesis regularly confirmed in transmission chain experiments that use graphic stimuli. To test the wider validity of this finding we turn to the Vai script of Liberia, a syllabic writing system invented in relative isolation by non-literates in ca. 1833. Unlike the earliest systems of the ancient world, Vai has the advantage of having been systematically documented from its earliest beginnings until the present day. Using established methods for quantifying visual complexity we find that the Vai script has become increasingly compressed over the first 171 years of its history, complementing earlier claims and partial evidence that similar processes were at work in early writing systems. As predicted, letters simplified to a greater extent when their initial complexity was higher.

The expressional style of the novel by Jean Giono «Big flock»

The paper is devoted to the analysis of the stylistic peculiarities of the novel of the French writer Jean Giono «Big Flock» (1931) dedicated to the events of World War I. The article proposes to use the Gaston Bashlar’s conception «The Poetics of Fire» as a methodology for the research of the expressive style. In the French criticism there is an idea about stylistic sophistication of this work, which is defined as a model of the tragic naturalism. It is suggested to look at the style of this work from the point of view of the poetics of expressionism. It is shown that the work of J. Giono is an example of «the ardent language», which contains the bright «The Poetics of Fire» and many other means of expressionist style. The novel «Big Flock» is called an amazing work of world literature on the endlessly elaborated theme of the war 1914. According to the French criticism, the novel is written in the spirit of the tragic naturalism. In a novel hatred for a civilization that has shed so much blood is expressed with utmost power. We intend to prove the consistently expressionistic nature of this work. If we use Gaston Bashlar's concept of «Poetics of Fire» as a methodology to identify the expressionist style, it is precisely the dominant archetype of fire that will enable to move the novel by J. Giono on a style scale from tragic naturalism to expressionism. G. Bashlar is a distinguished French philosopher, cultural scientist, literary scholar of the 20th century who explores dreams, in particular the creative dream described in his work «Psychoanalysis of Fire», which examines the images inspired by the contemplation of the fire. Also in this work, the philosopher identifies specific psychological complexes that allow deeper understanding of poetic works. All the manifestations of the fire G. Bashlar connects with the creative process. The main features of the poetics of expressionism in the novel of J. Giono «Big Flock» are as follows: the active use of the fire image that makes the work an example of «The Poetics of Fire» written by Gaston Bashlyar; the fragmentation of the plot; the inciting of the naturalistic pictures of mutilation and the death; the schematized character-images, the descriptions of human appearance compared to animals; the hyperbolization of every language means; the richness of the multiple tropes, the pervasive allegory of the «great flock», which enables to bring the generalizations to the scale of all humanity, to equalize the human and the animal world as an object of destruction, etc. Apparently, there is no expressionist means that wouldn’t manifest itself in this novel.

Рефлексије о смрти у Ремети другој дубровачког пјесника Мавра Ветрановића

Reflections on death in the second Remeta of Ragusan poet Mavro VetranovićRagusan poet Mavro Vetranović, as a representative of the Christian Renaissance, expressed in his poetry an appreciation of earthly life and he thought of death as an inevitability. These attitudes were present in both types of his lyrics, religious and mundane. The second Remeta was Vetranović’s most famous satirical poem. Although it belongs to mundane lyrics, its function was to express a religious sentiment. Vetranović begins with general reflections on death, and then he develops this theme with effective comparisons, rhetoric questions and ingenious allegories. He makes it more tangible with a vision of death, armed with a scythe, cutting all around. Vetranović draws attention to human sin, as well as the only way of redemption, counting on wisdom from the Holy Bible. Renouncing earthly pleasures was one of the ways to fight against sin. The absurdity of pleasures was contrasted with naturalistic pictures of a dead man in a grave, of whom little would remain as no one can escape decomposition. He was trying to make people understand, by macabre pictures and images of rotten bodies, that they are mortal. At the same time, he moti­vated them, by preaching contemptus mundi, to despise and renounce all the pleasures of this life. Размышления о смерти в Ремете второй дубровницкого поэта Мавра ВетрановичаДубровницкий поэт Мавро Ветранович, являясь представителем христианского Ренессанса, в своей поэзии раскрывал ничтожность земной жизни и размышлял о неминуемости смерти. Такое миропонимание отражается в его религиозной и светской лирике. Самым известным сатирическим стихотворением Ветрановича является Ремета вторая. Хотя оно относится к светской лирике, его функция заключается также в выражении религиозных представлений. В Ремете второй поэт размышляет о смерти, используя сравнения, риторические вопросы и остроумные аллегории, поэт рисует образ смерти с косой. Ветранович указывает человеку на его грехи, а также на путь к спасению, опираясь на Святое писание. Один из способов побороть грех заключается в отречении от всех мирских удовольствий. Мысль о бессмысленности мирских удовольствий подтверждается натуралистическим описанием мертвого человека. Смертность человека подчеркивается изображением жутких картин разложения тела. Одновременно, проповедуя contemptus mundi, поэт поощряет пренебрежение и презрение к наслаждению земными благами.

Age-related Changes in Object Processing and Contextual Binding Revealed Using fMR Adaptation

Using fMR adaptation, we studied the effects of aging on the neural processing of passively viewed naturalistic pictures composed of a prominent object against a background scene. Spatially distinct neural regions showing specific patterns of adaptation to objects, background scenes, and contextual integration (binding) were identified in young adults. Older adults did not show adaptation responses corresponding to binding in the medial-temporal areas. They also showed an adaptation deficit for objects whereby their lateral occipital complex (LOC) did not adapt to repeated objects in the context of a changing background. The LOC could be activated, however, when objects were presented without a background. Moreover, the adaptation deficit for objects viewed against backgrounds was reversed when elderly subjects were asked to attend to objects while viewing these complex pictures. These findings suggest that the elderly have difficulty with simultaneous processing of objects and backgrounds that, in turn, could contribute to deficient contextual binding.

The challenge of the abstract mind: symbols, signs and notational systems in European prehistory

Since the earliest manifestations of symbolic activity in modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) in the Upper Palaeolithic, there is evidence for two independent cognitive procedures, for the production of representational images (naturalistic pictures or sculptures) and of abstract signs. The use of signs and symbols is attested for archaic humans (Homo neanderthalensis) and for Homo erectus while art in naturalistic style is an innovation among modern humans. The symbiotic interaction of the two symbolic capacities is illustrated for the visual heritage of Palaeolithic cave paintings in Southwestern Europe, for rock engravings in the Italian Alps (Val Camonica) and for the vivid use of signs and symbols in Southeastern Europe during the Neolithic. Around 5500 BC, sign use in Southeastern Europe reached a sophisticated stage of organization as to produce the earliest writing system of mankind. Since abstractness is the main theme in the visual heritage of the region, this script, not surprisingly, is composed of predominantly abstract signs.